Shocking Report: NHS Routinely Mistreats the Elderly

The shocking health care horror stories coming out of Great Britain are heartbreaking, but they do serve as examples of what happens when individuals turn over responsibility for themselves to the state. They lose their individuality and become just tiny parts of the great collective. This is our future if ObamaCare is fully implemented.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: “The inhumane treatment of older people described in this report is sickening and should send shock waves through the NHS and Government.

“It’s difficult to imagine us allowing any other group of people to suffer this indignity and neglect, yet we know this is just the tip of the iceberg. Appalling treatment of older people in the health service is far too common.”

Under Labour, health spending in England tripled to reach more than £100 billion a year. A new “NHS Constitution” set out the service’s commitment to human rights, high-quality care and respect for patients and their families.

Yet the Ombudsman said her office’s investigations into the cases of 10 people over 65, which took place between 2009 and last year, showed the “stark contrast” between the NHS’s stated principles and the treatment patients received.

The patients had all been loving, active people of a generation that “didn’t like to make a fuss”. They had simply wanted to be cared for properly and die peacefully – but they all suffered “unnecessary pain, indignity and distress while in the care of the NHS”. As a result, “they were transformed from alert and able individuals to people who were dehydrated, malnourished or unable to communicate”.

Half of them did not consume adequate food or water, some were not washed, others were discharged in a “shambolic” fashion, while in many cases their suffering was ignored.

Nine of the 10 died while in NHS care or soon afterwards, and the Ombudsman upheld the complaints made about the care received by all 10.

The report says it is “incomprehensible” that the NHS needs to be told that its patients should be provided with clean and comfortable surroundings, assistance with eating, drinking water and the ability to call for help. “Yet the most basic of human needs are too often neglected.”

Remember, the NHS is the health care system Dr. Donald Berwick finds so appealing. Thank you very much, but I’ll put my trust in the invisible forces of markets any day over “leaders with hands.” They lead on the path to hell.

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